Soaps by the sea

I was recently asked by a friend who sits on the board of directors for her mother's literacy foundation to donate some soapy goodies to be auctioned off at her foundation's annual fund raising dinner coming up this summer. The theme of the event is "By the Sea" and, while it's certainly not required for the donations be theme-specific, I thought it would be a fun project to aim for.

That was the inspiration for the soaps I made last weekend:

For the first batch, I was aiming for the color to fade from light blue at the top to dark blue at the bottom, like the color of the horizon when the sky blends into the ocean. I ended up with darker hues than I had originally intended, but this way I suppose it reminds me of the colors of the ocean itself, as the light filters out at greater depths. The white lines are the waves.

I kind of like how the waves ended up sticking out of the mold on one side, adding texture. (Bonus feature: turn them upside-down after use to allow the water to drain and prevent the entire bottom of the soap from getting mushy! :P ) So far I'm the only one who likes that feature, though. What does everyone else think?

Anyway, for my second attempt at ocean/wave soaps I decided to use the tube approach:

This technique didn't allow me to get that nice color fade I was going for in the first batch, but I like how they came out anyway!

All the wave bars are scented with a combination of ocean and sea breeze fragrance oils, making these great unisex soaps.